input needed: preventing hydrolock on the cheap for the budget minded wheeler

[NovaPath]

In looking at my air filter tonight, I saw a good bit of dried mud down in the bottom of the filter box. This tells me I've been playing on the edge a bit too much. It seems like I can simply plug the hole at the bottom, and drill a large circular hole into the air box top prior to the filter which would basically prevent hydro lock unless I decided to submerge up past my headlights.

 

That being said, this seems to easy, and someone would have already had a DIY for this. What am I missing?

 

Thanks,

[Slartibartfast]

You'd be drawing warm air from the engine bay instead of cold air from the fender, and it might be more vulnerable to splashes--I remember one guy put a cone filter on his and bombed through a puddle and managed to splash enough in there to cause problems. I remember somebody (My1path?) had a sort of mini-snorkel inside the fender of his WD21 that looked like it pulled from back by the door hinge.

[fleurys]

I did do something like this... I did not wanted to drill a hole for a full blown snorkel... You'll see in the post... enjoy..

 

http://www.nissanpathfinders.net/forum/topic/25150-my-new-selectable-air-intake-with-a-little-extra/?p=460747

 

 

[Blindaviator]

You'd be drawing warm air from the engine bay instead of cold air from the fender

 

The only thing drawing warm air would do is decrease power some and increase fuel economy.

 

Warm or hot air decreases power and increases fuel economy while cold air increases power and decreases fuel economy...

[Cuong Nguyen]

Or you could just hook up some flex hose up to your hood cowl.

[XPLORx4]

 

The only thing drawing warm air would do is decrease power some and increase fuel economy.

 

Warm or hot air decreases power and increases fuel economy while cold air increases power and decreases fuel economy...

 

I have never heard that warm air increases fuel economy. Where did you find that information?

 

It's my understanding that in a modern engine whose air/fuel ratio is determined by the O2 sensors, the higher temperature of the air (and therefore its lower density) will cause less fuel to be delivered (resulting in less power) for a given throttle position. All that means is you have to increase the throttle position to draw in more air (and consume more gas to keep the A/F ratio optimal) to achieve the same power output at lower intake temperatures.

[NovaPath]

Thanks for the ideas fleurys, I think I will do something very similar.

 

As far as the hot air vs cold air debate, that really only matters up until about 15-20mph, after that it is all the same or at least very similar. At any rate, i'm not worried about dealing with hot air off idle in this thing, it's not a rocket 0-60 regardless and never will be, I'd rather have the level of comfort that I will be able to drive home under my own power(even if it is slightly reduced!)